decisions ...

"Remind me -- why do we want it to die?" A perplexed young woman at the For Choice blog is uncertain about her ... catechism ... and solicits readers' help for a "more rounded view" of the issue.

I am strongly pro-choice; I believe a woman should be able to terminate a pregnancy no matter how late in the gestational period or what her reasons are. I often discuss things with my father who is pro-choice but sometimes struggles with the more specific issues surrounding the topic.

The other day we were talking about Amillia Taylor, world's most-premature baby, "believed to be the first baby to have survived following a gestation period of less than 22 weeks". It got me thinking about late term abortion.

A woman's right to her own bodily integrity is the most important thing, of course. But if a doctor is going to kill the foetus and remove it -- why not remove it alive, absolve her of all responsibility and put it into the adoption system? She has not 'become a parent' and she has had her pregnancy ended as she wanted.

I'm struggling, I suppose, with the idea of late term abortion. What is the difference between killing a 22-24 week old foetus and removing it from the mother's body, and allowing it to be born and then killing it? The first is seen as acceptable and the second unacceptable... but why?

I guess what I'm asking is -- why kill the foetus in a late term abortion? Could it not just be treated as a premature birth with a view to the baby going into adoption? The mother has gained the same thing she wanted in the first place, and the foetus/baby has not been killed.

I'm not saying I do or do not believe we should do this - I am unsure about it which is why I am asking for the opinions of the esteemed members of this community. Hopefully others can look at this from other perspectives which will help me (and others) to get a more rounded view of the issue. Thank you in advance for your input.

Both the blogger and her father are "struggling." Their ideological indoctrination has not entirely succeeding in smothering the voice of conscience, and the nagging intuition that a human life is at stake in abortion makes them ripe for a change of heart. Now suppose they were to encounter an articulate Catholic clergyman -- a senior prelate, say -- of the stripe that believes it's the personal prerogative of each communicant to decide whether he should or shouldn't receive the Eucharist at Mass ...

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I afirm the direction she is going, however, I fear that systems will be established to enslave the baby to be harvested for what ever reasons may be avaiable. Obviously the state would step in to take control of the child.

Posted by: -
Mar. 13, 2007 10:02 AM ET USA

I hesitantly followed the link above and the responses given to this woman's post are chilling!
Holy Family, please intercede . . .

Posted by: -
Mar. 13, 2007 12:59 AM ET USA

Dear Young Woman,
You're on the right track. Keep listening to the Holy Spirit, Who is instructing you and helping you see the error in Pro-Choice. As you refer to the "fetus" being a viable human being, that very same "human being" has been in the womb since conception. He or she was given life by God with the help of his/her parents.
Participating with God in creation is an exceptional privilege, and must be treated as such. Why indeed do we insist on killing the unborn? Pray, pray.

Posted by: -
Mar. 12, 2007 4:13 PM ET USA

I'm sure I'm not an "esteemed" enough member of her communion (blog), though she might have turned to a better communion. That nagging voice in your mind, friend, is the last bit of your conscience that hasn't quite burned out - but it will, if you don't pay attention to it.

Posted by: -
Mar. 12, 2007 12:58 PM ET USA

Hopefully they would meet Bishop Bruskewitz, Bishop Burke or one of the other dozen good bishops.

Posted by: -
Mar. 12, 2007 11:33 AM ET USA

Of course, there will be some senior prelates now walking about who will be asking Father Abraham for a drop of water to cool their tongues in the not too distant future.
However, in the case of this poor woman caught up in the demonically clinical language of describing an unborn human baby--a child in a mother's womb, may God help her out of the living hell that she and her father currently occupy.